Guild Wars 2

Making Twilight and Sunrise into a sellable Eternity and being able to use the skins on the wardrobe set me up for my awesome digital life.

Andred.1087:

Space.8053:

Are you ever going to be happy with the core mechanics of your game or are you going to keep ripping them up every couple of months or so? Why should I invest time in this game to re spec my characters when these changes are so frequent?

The last change to traits was a disaster, why should we get excited about this change?

You can leave whenever you want.

Great reply, real insightful.

I think they are valid questions. I tinker with builds / stats a lot and decided to invest in ascended armour and weapons a few months ago. These have non changable stats attached to them and are picked for the delicate balance with my trait stats. Now I’ll have to rebalance everything again. Just like the ferocity patch. Time and effort I don’t have anymore. I can handle skill changes / trait changes because thats balance. What I dislike is core mechanics like say damage being overhauled again and again for no reason.

The trait system we have in place has been panned for months so I don’t see why Anet should get a free pass this time around. Levelling is a nightmare and that got through testing so why should I expect this to be any different?

I guess you are right, best to not give feedback and just leave.

Are you ever going to be happy with the core mechanics of your game or are you going to keep ripping them up every couple of months or so? Why should I invest time in this game to re spec my characters when these changes are so frequent?

The last change to traits was a disaster, why should we get excited about this change?

I’d give the Fox in the box a watch, the mans a beast!

style.6173:

Before the patch, the majority of people on the forums said this was a dumb idea. In actuality, one of 2 things will happen:

1. Some people will play the game to just sit in towers. In the past, the idea of a “roaming sentry” worked. Now without the swords, people need to stay in a tower. Will they do it?
2. People decide to quit playing defense and just go offense. This will basically turn WvW more into EotM.

We shall see soon

I think its great. Before the update the EoTM wxp train was restricted to green but now we can enjoy that skillful playstyle in wvw whatever colour we are.

I think its great. Before the update the EoTM wxp train was restricted to green but now we can enjoy that skillful playstyle in wvw whatever colour we are.

As a rule of thumb to have a successful solo build you need to fit in:

Survivability
Damage
Movement

You are going to find every build has a ‘solid’ counter, that’s why there isn’t just one build that everyone uses to solo roam. I take a good think about what I struggle against and what I die to so that I can tweak my build to suit my playstyle.

All the professions have their limitations, but I would stick to a class you are familliar with. I tried to switch from a warrior to a torment mesmer after April patch and although it was fun, I struggled because I haven’t really spent much time on mesmer. I can see how in the right hands it would be a good build, but I died a lot and missed the movement that warrior brings.

Now that’s not to say some all professions solo roam on the same footing. The key is to play to your strengths and what you enjoy. If you love 1v1, then you can go for a profession and build that favours it but loses mobility (eg PU mesmer or condition necro) or survivability (thief). If running circles around zergs is your thing then go for a build with movement but has lower 1v1 capabilities (eg greatsword warrior / ranger). If you prefer the defensive route there are some great choices too (eg bunker engi / ele / guardian).

So yeah it sounds like a lame answer but work out how you want to play and then construct your build accordingly. Don’t rely on someones youtube greatest hits video before thinking that one build rules the roost because there are plenty of counters for every build / situation.

Scruffy.3982:

“This new system for acquiring traits in the game brings back an aspect of the original Guild Wars that we really liked [my italics], which was exploring the world as a major component of character progression” (quote from Roy Cronacher, announcing the April Feature Pack).
Who exactly is the ‘we’ he refers to? Because I don’t think he can have been referring to the GW2 player-base. I have scanned the various forums and I can’t see any posts that were clamouring for this change to the perfectly good trait system we had before.
The announcement for the April Feature Pack begins by saying that “Once you reach the appropriate level, we want you to be able to dive right into the system and start playing around with it, so you’ll unlock each tier for free!” Ending sentences with exclamation points does not make them more palatable – so I get to level 60 and the master level traits for my necro are unlocked but I don’t have any trait points spare to start being able to “dive right into the system”.
The announcement continues “As part of this approach to making traits more approachable, we’ve pushed back the level at which the different trait tiers unlock for new characters in order to better pace the early game experience and to add more meaningful character progression from levels 30 to 80.” ‘Approachable’? Where are the players who were saying that the traits were not approachable? And as for the the idea that the early game experience will now be better paced – this is simply not the case as can be seen by the vast majority of negative comments above. “Meaningful character progression” is another phrase that has absolutely no meaning – running all over the place from dungeon to WvW to area completion does not give invest my character progression with meaning. It invests it with grinding and lack of enjoyment. Everything to do with character progression changes from being enjoyable to a chore.
“With this system, spending traits will be much easier for new players to understand. Right now, there is the possibility for someone who doesn’t really know the system to spend 11 trait points in one line and 14 in another and wind up with a less effective build.” Again, I would ask where were the new players scratching their heads over the old trait system? Were they such a sizeable number that the system had to be changed for their benefit? My new necro, built post-April 15, is level 60 and I don’t have any build, let alone a less effective one. I have a random accumulation of unlocked trait points that bear no relation to one another. Under the old system I was able to experiment with builds as I was progressing – I didn’t mind the cost of refunding my traits, it was nothing compared to now.
As I said before the implication that the trait changes were done for the benefit of players has not been borne out by the vast number of posts welcoming the new system or congratulating the developers on a job well done. For a game that seemed to take pride in listening to its player-base I would like some evidence of which player-base was listened to for these changes.

well said

if you are going to keep the trait discovery system, please make the unlocks a lot more accessible!
You could use a system like skill points, where we have a choice of traits we can unlock rather than setting each trait to a specific task.
Perhaps the tasks can be lowered to completed hearts / events / jumping puzzles rather than group content in high level maps.

The current system is really, really off putting and I myself do not have the motivation to carry on levelling now I hit 30 last night which is the polar opposite to how I felt when I got characters pre patch to level 30.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

Maybe it was stated already, but has anyone tried to make an Engie or Thief from the ground up under this new system? I know i am sort of easy mode-ing it with the War and Guard. If so, how has not having adequate access to traits affected your playing through the game with a lowbie?

I’m hating the cost of leveling a light armour class, the armour / cloth cost is crazy for new players. Just hit 30 and I have 3 traits unlocked, I’m not sure how many i’ll have when I hit 80 but it probably won’t be that many more.

Imagine trying to level up doing only WvW!

43 gold and 360 skill points to be able to fully use your character! What a slap in the face. The whole unlocking system needs to be much more accessible to people. Unless I have a pool of freinds to help, who exactly is going to take my underlevelled character into dungeons? Or mini dungeons (Flame Temple Tomb, i’m looking at you)? What if i’m an unsocialble type? What If I dislike 100% map completion? What if I find the story dull? What if I play at unsociable hours? Or if there’s noone on the map to help with group events?

All this with without traits / stat increases from traits. I just don’t understand the thinking.

Build diversity will take an even bigger nosedive for characters going forward. Why bother spending money or grinding 100% map completion to unlock all the traits when you can get the few that you use?

Please reconsider!

WvW – Greatsword – Sword/Shield

0/6/4/0/4

Arms – iii, ix, x
Defense – ii, ix
Discipline – iii, x

Combo with shield bash / flurry (immobilize & fury) into 100 blades & whirlwind attack. Final thrust is your spike, but can be tough to land.
Plenty of movement, pack defense in you utilities, – condi food , maybe combo with melandru runes so you can run dual stability (Dolyak Signet, Balanced Stance, Endure Pain).

Can give the element of suprise as most people pack stun breaks and stability and not expect an immobilize.

As for gear, just find a sweet spot between toughness power and ferocity to suit your playstyle.

bhagwad.4281:

This has got to hurt right?

Goodness Gracious

mtpelion.4562:

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Vol for this thread. My Unidentified Dyes have been sitting on the TP at 35s for a while now, and yesterday they all sold!

Thingol.6347:

Well, it seems it’s gonna be funny season on Gandara…

Not really

No idea of a formula but chances are that anything in yellow text probably hasn’t been killed in a while

Refundable traits out of combat should have been in at launch.

Better late than never I guess

Holy Trinity Batman!

Arnie is a mesmer, nuff said!

Map: Ok, hold still everyone this will just take a moment…

you know you can get this over different runs?

I got this yesterday just starting on different colours.

lol

Or you could do 3 runs and start on a different colour each time.

People never listen do they! Oh well I have my achievement, keep trying to do all 3 starting with Red in 6 mins and blaming builds & player skill when you fail lol.

Maybe playing The Walking Dead last night has softened my usual stoney heart but I rather enjoyed that and thought it was a touching cut scene. Pats on the back all round Anet.

oh snap, was waiting for something to spend my ticket on. Hope the shield looks good!

The official home of Bessie!

The problem you might find is that you can stack confusion easily but it might not tick that much because if you rotate your cc they won’t be actually using skills to trigger it.

With a lack of other forms of condition damage you will probably find that you don’t pressure as much as the current ham-bow condi warrior. Against decent players you will find that landing Skull Crack and Earthshaker a problem which in turn will hurt your own condi removal options. No access to stability and stun breaks will also cause you a lot of grief.

A mes / condi engi / ham-bow war will probably have the edge on your build, but its all in the play testing and seeing if it works yourself tbh.

Ah the old 5 signet build!

What I would suggest:

If you can find a way of sticking 15 into Discipline (looks like you have 10 in your current set up) it would mean you get access to ‘Fast Hands’ trait. Being able to swap weapons every 5 sec instead of 10 sec can make a huge difference to your skill options rather than just auto attack when your other skills are on cooldown.

Vitality is not that important for a Warrior as they already have a large health pool. If you can find ways of moving these attribute points into precision and crit % damage you will see a noticeable increase in your damage output.

Don’t be afraid to swap out your signets for different encounters, a banner and ‘For Great Justice!’ would be a greater benefit for group play rather than bonuses just for you. If you are encountering an area with lots of knockdowns maybe think about equipping balanced stance before you engage.

If you are running 5 signets don’t be scared to active them (Dolyak gives stability and is your stun break, Stamina is condition removal)

If you have your heart set on running Greatsword / Longbow consider running traits in Arms (X – Forceful Greatsword) and Tactics (IV – Stronger Bowstrings, X – Burning Arrows).

Food buffs can make a huge difference, even investing in something cheap can boost stats like boon duration, – condition duration that you cannot adjust from gear easily.

Berserker gear is seen as the ‘best gear’ as the more damage you produce, the quicker you can kill things. The quicker you kill things the less chance they will have to cause you damage. Unfortunately this means you will die a lot when facing mobs of enemies that you have not previously encountered and also if you play against people in wvw. Just find a happy medium until you feel you can sacrifice more defensive gear for more offense.

So summing up!

Power looks good! I would just tweak some of that Vitality into Precision / + Crit Damage % gear.

Play what you feel comfortable with, just try to use your experience to swap skills when out of combat as and when you need them because sticking with signets will make you a lazy player when there is usually a better skill selection option for encounters.

Good luck!

You could play the t6 lottery but if you want to play it safe you could always use 5 to make 10 unidentified dyes for ~3g

Cheers for the SM three-ways tonight! Was a lot of fun on EB!

It’s unbelievable that Anet try to make WvW competitive and then scratch their heads thinking “why are they being so mean to each other in the forums?”

Yes, forum trolls need to be slapped down, but the heavy handed approach to everyone is unnecessary.

Making WvW a competitive game format was always going to bring out the forum trolls / keyboard warriors from every server.

I personally dislike the wording of Anet’s message as to me it is far too heavy handed. To me it sounds like ‘step out of line in the forums wvw community and we will ban you’. Absolutely over the top considering Anet themselves stoked the fires by creating this ‘ultimate finisher’ prize for ‘winning’ a completely unbalanced format.

I’ve long been a believer in Anet and their ideas for WvW however the current mentality is ‘if a problem (that we created) is too much effort / hard to fix we might as well delete / ignore it’.

That is what is truly disappointing!

g/s & sw/sh is working well for me at the moment. zoom zoom!

Fille.1325:

Thanks Gandarra for that sneaky AG Keep Inc on EB. I really enjoyed my Loot!

hah you’ll have to celebrate with some jagerbombs!

I’m still unsure of my WvW group build traits now & whether to go mostly damage (0,20,20,0,30), semi tank (0,0,20,20,30) or mostly tank (0,0,30,20,20). Will have to test more to see how useful it is to sacrifice survival traits for damage traits now that Burst Mastery & Earthshaker are weaker and UF is 10 more trait points.

I switched from hammer – mace/shield to greatsword – sword/shield for WvW solo roaming a while back so am pretty unaffected by the changes in that respect.

The way to go when leveling imo is shouts / signets as ‘For Great Justice!’ ‘Shake it Off!’ ‘On My Mark!’, Signet of Rage and Healing Signet are very strong and the respective trait bonuses for them are not very expensive.

At level 20 / 30 you can get ‘Lung Capacity’ / ‘Signet Mastery’ (10 in Tactics / Discipline)
Level 40 you definitely want to pick up ‘Fast Hands’ (15 in Discipline) and then shoot for the weapon traits that you enjoy such as Forceful Greatsword (20 Arms for Greatsword), Crack Shot (20 Arms for Rifle), Merciless Hammer (20 Defense for Hammer), Axe Mastery (20 in Strength for Axe).

Find a setup that you feel comfortable with, ultimately you will have to decide what you want to sacrifice, as you cannot spec your traits into everything.

Without G/S you’re relying on your team to get you up to 25 might stacks, plus Whirling Axe damage doesn’t make up for 100b or Whirlwind Attack against a wall (plus the bonus evade) imo.

But most dungeons can be breezed through pretty easily. I wouldn’t sweat it too much unless you are theory crafting ‘max dps’ style builds where the threads inevitably lead to internet fisticuffs.

Think i’ve had the outmanned buff for the entire weekend on Jade Sea borderland, even had to resort to solo catapulting our spawn tower for some fun.
Elona are obviously serious about defending their stuff, usually every camp will have someone guarding it with extra guard upgrades. Just wish they had some more solo roamers.

Hows Obsidian Sanctum looking so far?

The quality of the guilds in the silver league was immense, thanks for all the fun over the last few weeks!

See you at the meetup!

slipped in towards the end of:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/december-10-2013/

enjoying the duels in the Obsidian Sanctum over the weekend, cya out there!

cheers for the fun on deso bl tonight

Happened to me with 2 guys from the same guild in a PUG, kicked everyone at end boss. Luckily I was able to rejoin as they posted their selling SE1 (lol) lfg straight away. Gave them a piece of my mind and reported them.

Would be great if party chat didn’t disappear when you leave a party.

haha oh dear Nev, Mayo.

Might be a good idea to establish which server you think the other is on before baiting and trolling lol

jtook.6508:

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this match up to be honest, it’s been really tough which is just how i like it, so thanks to all parties involved for keeping me busy all week. The wife’s not too happy, but sacrifices must be made!!!

haha still another week to go mate! Better get in some brownie points before Friday!

I hope they make the rewards for coming bottom of Gold / Silver better than coming top of Silver / Bronze

with so much access to fury you want to stack power & +crit % damage imo. mix it in with tou / vit / pre with cavalier / valkyrie / berserker as you see fit.

oblivious.8074:

So can I write song lyrics like last time?

You know this thread is an infinite loop of the same thing being said ad nauseam right?

This ‘thread’ is a car crash, they should just lock it

cheers for the fights on deso bl tonight!

probably been mentioned but

Merchant / Retraiter / Trading Post NPCs at spawn please!

cheers for the fun last night by the way, we should be out and about again tonight!

<3 YaK

Dyno.9467:

I see the Deso abuse is starting, its not our fault you gave up

It’s called ‘going to bed’, a ritual these silver league servers often take part in.